A simple tool for estimating city-wide annual electrical energy savings from cooler surfaces

Journal Article · Sun Jul 26 00:00:00 EDT 2015 · Urban Climate

DOI:https://doi.org/10.1016/j.uclim.2015.05.007· OSTI ID:1378665

Pomerantz, Melvin ^[1]; Rosado, Pablo J. ^[1]; Levinson, Ronnen ^[1]

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1. Lawrence Berkeley National Lab. (LBNL), Berkeley, CA (United States)

We present a simple method to estimate the maximum possible energy saving that might be achieved by increasing the albedo of surfaces in a large city. We restrict this to the "indirect effect", the cooling of outside air that lessens the demand for air conditioning (AC). Given the power demand of the electric utilities and data about the city, we can use a single linear equation to estimate the maximum saving. For example, the result for an albedo change of 0.2 of pavements in a typical warm city in California, such as Sacramento, is that the saving is less than about 2 kWh per m² per year. This may help decision makers choose which heat island mitigation techniques are economical from an energy-saving perspective.

• Research Organization: Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory (LBNL), Berkeley, CA (United States)
• Sponsoring Organization: USDOE; USDOE Office of Energy Efficiency and Renewable Energy (EERE)
• Grant/Contract Number: AC02-05CH11231
• OSTI ID: 1378665
• Alternate ID(s): OSTI ID: 1236696; OSTI ID: 1252003
• Journal Information: Urban Climate, Journal Name: Urban Climate Journal Issue: P2 Vol. 14; ISSN 2212-0955
• Publisher: Elsevier
• Country of Publication: United States
• Language: English

Related Subjects

54 ENVIRONMENTAL SCIENCES
albedo
cool surface
electrical energy saving
pavements
urban heat island mitigation